Paramahansa Yogananda - How To Have Courage, Calmness, and Confidence

Dear Reader,

Here is a handbook for reclaiming the highest power within you. Read this book carefully, absorb the power of the Masters words, practice his simple suggestions, and you will feel a new energy filling you, giving you the power to meet every challenge with joyful confidence, calmness, and courage.

Paramhansa Yogananda came to the United States from India in 1920, bringing to the West the teachings and techniques of Yoga, the ancient science of soul awakening. He was the first master of Yoga to make his home in the West, and his Autobiography of a Yogi, has become the bestselling autobiography of all time, introducing Westerners to their untapped soul potential.

Yoga is the ancient science of redirecting ones energies inward to produce spiritual awakening. In addition to bringing Americans the most practical and effective techniques of meditation, Yogananda showed how these principles can be applied to all areas of life.

The articles included in this book are taken from several sources: the lessons Yogananda wrote in the 1920s and 1930s, articles of his that appeared in Inner Culture and East West magazines published before 1943, and the small book Scientific Healing Affirmations, published in 1924. Most of what is included here is not available elsewhere.

Crystal Clarity Publishers

Chapter 1

Courage: an Innate Quality of the Soul

Success, health, and wisdom are the natural attributes of the soul. Identification with weak thoughts and habits, and lack of concentration, perseverance, and courage are responsible for the misery that people suffer due to poverty, ill health, and so forth.

You are paralyzing your faculty for success by thoughts of fear. Success and perfection of mind and body are mans inherent qualities, because he is made in Gods image. In order to be able to claim his birthright, however, he must first rid himself of the delusion of his own limitations.

God owns everything. Therefore, know at all times that as Gods child you own everything that belongs to the Father. You must feel fully satisfied and contented, knowing that you have access to all your Fathers possessions. Your native endowment is perfection and prosperity, but you choose to be imperfect and poor. The sense of possessing everything must be a mental habit with each individual.

Every day is a fresh opportunity on the part of the human ego to gather more and more exploits of heroism. Meet everybody and every circumstance on the battlefield of life with the courage of a hero and the smile of a conqueror. Whatever comes your way and needs attention must be considered a duty. Duty is not imposed upon man by any super-power. It is the inherent urge of life toward progression. Neglect of ones duty is a source of evil that can be avoided by wisdom.

Avoid associating with those who always complain about life. They may ruin your newly awakened spirituality, which is like a tender plant growing within you. Avoid such people and try to be happy always, no matter how you are situated. God will never reveal Himself to you unless you are contented and happy.

The true devotee banishes faint-heartedness. Resolutely he assembles a mental caravan of noble spiritual qualities, appointing Will Power and Devotion to the post of leadership, and sets out on his journey. He knows with unshakable faith that, once he frees his heart from every vestige of desire, he will attain true freedom at last. Onward, ever onward he travels, embracing high achievements on the way, but never allowing himself to become attached to any of them. Never does he rest until the end is reached. Such is the true devotee!

Changeeven change for the betteris often approached with apprehension. In giving up something, people think, will I be left with nothing? It takes courage to renounce the known for the unknown. It is not easy even to renounce a familiar pain for an unknown, and therefore uncertain, happiness. The mind is like a horse that for years has pulled its delivery wagon. The horse grows accustomed to its daily route, and cannot be convinced easily to walk a new one. The mind, too, will not lightly abandon its old habits, even when it knows they cause only misery.

Beneficial changes should be embraced with courage. As long as ones hopes for better things are opposed by fear of their attainment, the mind can never be at peace. Accept change, therefore, as lifes only constant. Our lives are an endless procession of gains and losses, of joys and sorrows, of hopes and disappointments. At one moment we find ourselves threatened by the storms of trials; moments later, a silver lining brightens the gray clouds; then, suddenly, the skies are blue again.

The sincere seeker, in contrast to the armchair seeker who wastes his life spinning intellectual theories, takes heart at the thought of the hard work before him. A true warrior, though afraid, plunges courageously into battle when the strength of his arm is needed. A true alpinist, though apprehensive of the sheer cliff he faces, sets out resolutely to conquer it. And the sincere truth seeker tells himself, I know what an arduous task it must be to achieve perfection, but I will give it all I have. With Gods help, success, surely, must be mine! By deep, daily efforts in meditation he conquers flesh-consciousness at last, and regains his long-lost awareness of the divine bliss within.

O devotee, take heart! No matter how dry, clay-hard, and cracked the soil of your heart has become during famine years of sense indulgence, of failure and disappointment, it can be watered and softened again by peace-showers of inner communion. Your spiritual enthusiasm, long wilted, can be revived. Only drink once more the ancient wine of God communion. In the field of fervent spiritual endeavor, as, daily, you work the softened soil of renewed soul-perceptions, sow once again the seeds of spiritual success, and watch them grow into a new crop of divine joy.

Instead of being overcome and discouraged when confronted with what you think is trouble, thank the Father for offering you the opportunity to see what you need to learn and to develop the strength and wisdom to meet the challenge.

Karma is best worked out by meeting lifes tests cheerfully and courageously. If you still fear something, that karma has not yet been worked out. To dissipate it, dont try to avoid the tests you have to face. Rise above them bravely, by dwelling in Gods joy within.

At any given moment you have all the courage, strength, and intelligence necessary to overcome any seeming difficulty. Become still, mentally and physically. Retire to your center of poise within, and commune with your Father there. He will show you the way.

Affirmations for Courage

I will seek safety first, last, and all the time in the constant inner thought of God-peace.

I will wipe the dream fears of disease, sadness, and ignorance from the souls face of silence, with the veil of Divine Mothers peace.